Summary:

The intention of this FOA is to have awardees examine the feasibility of extracting materials (minerals and metals) from geothermal brines. Geothermal fluids dissolve minerals and metals from rock formations as they flow through the Earth’s subsurface. Extraction and purification of these materials recovered from geothermal brines can be viewed as “solution mining by nature”. This funding opportunity seeks to further the development of technologies aimed at extracting and refining these materials for beneficial purposes.